Like June, which whizzed by, July was another month that moved way too quickly. Its claim to infamy, though, was that there were a nearly record number of days above 90 degrees, and not a few above 100 degrees. Gotta say I was not unhappy to see this July go, though it did mean wishing most of the summer away.
Because I was teaching in the bridge program at my small college on the hill, I rented an apartment and lived there for two weeks, mostly sweltering because there was no air conditioner. While the co-teaching experience with a colleague and friend was great, and the group of students was wonderful, on the last Friday of the second week I was bitten by a horse or deer fly while taking a morning walk with the dogs.
It all went down hill from there. Not only did my hand swell that day, but five days later the two spots where the fly bit me (eeek!) got bright red, hot to the touch, and swelled again. I had to race to the doctor, who prescribed mega-antibiotics. After that, I quickly decided to move out of the apartment (even though I'd paid rent for the three weeks), and returned to our home in the small city, which is totally free from evil insets who suck your blood and then contaminate it with God-knows-what (I felt like Lucy in Dracula!).
Everything improved from then on, not only because we have AC at home, but because I didn't have to worry about being attacked by wildlife. The hour-long commute to and fro wasn't too bad for the rest of the third week but I was glad when the program finally ended and I could return to the slower pace of summer, and stay put in our cozy home.
One thing August has been marvelous about has been the peaches. This year, the peach crop has outdone itself and I, true to my yearly pledge, have tried to get peaches as often as possible. Recently, I discovered a farmer's market about 40 minutes away where I can get my favorite peaches and where I also got this monster basil, with which I made delicious pesto.
Our tomatoes also did the bumper-crop thing, despite the awful drought that has killed crops all over the state and the country. I love making this simple recipe of fresh tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinegar and salt, and serve it over spaghetti. It's definitely one of my summer favorites.
Our apple trees, which are purely ornamental, also outdid themselves and while the apples in the pictures look lovely, they don't have any taste so they're no good for pies or for much else except for squirrels to nibble on them. Our Concord grape arbor also produced wonderfully juicy and sweet grapes, and my husband has already made at least two batches of home-made grape juice, which my father used to love.
The milder weather in August has lured all three cats onto the deck, which will soon be history after it gets torn down next month to be replaced by a patio, which we hope will be a huge improvement, especially since the wood on our deck is nearly rotted away.
This weekend, because of the embarrassment of peaches I had, I ended up making a peach galette (left) and a cobbler (with a buttermilk crust). The galette was perfect but I don't care for the cake-y crust of the traditional cobbler recipe so I'm just picking out the cooked peaches and eating them solo.
I didn't get to the farmer's market this Saturday because I had too much to do (I'm in the process of preparing materials for my tenure review at the same time that I'm trying to finish syllabuses and still hoping to get work done on my book project, which is now due in December). But I hope to make it to the market this week and I hope to get back to these pages more often than I've done for the past two months.
In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying the fresh produce and the cooler weather of late summer, which will soon become fall, shortly after classes begin. Way, way, way too soon.
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